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Hell yeah, those questions are cringeworthy.

Kyle Horlacher would prefer to steer the conversation to the horse he bred, trains and co-owns, the Pennsylvania-bred Shoshanah (Weigelia). She was aiming to give Horlacher his first stakes win in Monday's Power By Far Stakes at Parx. A five-time winner bred in Pennsylvania, she's a good story. But not nearly as good a story as her trainer. Horlacher is a relative newcomer to training, which is not necessarily by choice. Going to the track as a child with his grandfather, Maryland-based trainer Nate Heyman, he always wanted to work in racing. But for 22 years he had something a little more important to do. From 1998 to 2020, Commander Horlacher served in the Navy as a fighter pilot. By the time he retired in 2020, he had accumulated over 2,700 hours in naval aircraft and had been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (three awards), Navy Achievement Medal (two awards), and multiple campaign and unit awards. “It was a lot of fun being in the Navy,” Horlacher said. “You spend a lot of time away from home and when you're gone the people in the Navy become your family. There's a lot of camaraderie out there, from the guys who fix the airplanes to the ones that fly them. That's what I missed the most about the Navy, the friends I made there.” Just 47 when he retired from the Navy, Horlacher had to figure out what the next steps would be. A common path for Navy and Air Force pilots is to go to work for the airlines when they retire. But that wasn't for Horlacher. He set out to fulfill a lifelong ambition, to breed, own and train horses. “I owned some horses while I was in the Navy,” Horlacher said. “Obviously, with my commitment to the Navy I couldn't train them myself. I always wanted to take a crack at it. The airlines are always a great option and my buddies are doing well working for them. My son is on that track now, to be an airline pilot. I felt like I wanted to do something different. It was always a lifelong dream to go into training eventually. Sometimes you just have to take that step off the cliff and jump and go it.” Horlacher sent out his first horse in 2021 and has a career record of 6-for-24. He has just two horses, Shoshanah and an unraced 3-year-old filly named Dirty Gold (Flameaway), but that's fine with him. He's not interested in having a public stable and instead has decided to only train the handful of horses that he also bred. His grandfather served as a role model. Heyman was a World War II vet who is buried in Arlington Cemetery and also took an unusual route into the sport, giving up a career in the dress manufacturing business to go into training later on in life. Heyman won 45 races on his own and also served as an assistant to Hall of Famer King Leatherbury. “My cousin and I would go to the track with him,” said Horlacher, who has stalls at the Fair Hill training center. “It was a great way to grow up, going to Bowie, Pimlico and Laurel. When I was young, my cousin and I both wanted to be jockeys. We realized pretty early on that we were going to be way too big. Deciding to be a trainer, that came later. I realized that I can't be a rider and wanted to be more involved than just be an owner. That's how I decided I wanted to be a trainer.” That decision became easier after attended the 2009 GI Haskell, won by Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro), as a fan. “I was stationed at Willow Grove (Pennsylvania) at the time and Rachel Alexandra ran in the Haskell in 2009,” he said. “I wanted to take my kids to see a great race horse in person.” When he retired, his friends in the Navy family weren't surprised when he told them about his unusual career decision. He had been talking about it almost from the day when he enlisted. “Since I owned horses while in the Navy I don't think too many people were surprised when I chose to go this route rather than going to work for the airlines,” Horlacher said. “Whenever you leave a squadron they give you a placard and it has a picture of an airplane on it. Everyone in the squadron signs it. I'm looking at it right now and half of the notes on my pictures have to do with horses and racing. It's fun to go back and look at that. Even 20 years ago, I was talking to my friends about my someday doing this.” He won his first race in 2021 with the mare Bohemia Babe (Weigelia) and has won at least one race with his small stable every year since. Shoshanah has been his best horse. She has earned $174,153 and is coming off a second-place finish against open company in the May 17 The Very One S. at Pimlico.  She finished behind Future is Now (Great Notion), who went on to capture the GII Intercontinental S. at Saratoga on June 6 in her next start. The post Former Navy Pilot Turned Trainer, Kyle Horlacher Flying High in his New Profession appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Providing that she maintains her form over the summer, G1 King Charles III Stakes victress Asfoora (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) could take her globetrotting trip to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar, trainer Henry Dwyer said in an interview with racenet.com.au. With that win at Royal Ascot, a race part of the 'Win and You're In' program, she secured a guaranteed fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. Asfoora is the sixth Australian-trained sprinter to claim the race, formerly called the G1 King's Stand Stakes. “The Breeders Cup came on the radar a fair while ago when they told me it was at Del Mar,” Dwyer told racenet.com.au. “We've heard great things about [the track] and I was very excited to put it on the itinerary provisionally. That was very much in the frame when the 'prep' started. It was four runs in Europe, then maybe over there [US], but we needed to win a 'Win and You're In' race to fund the operation.” Dwyer also added in that interview that while he had planned for Asfoora to race in the G2 King George Qatar Stakes Aug. 2 at Goodwood, her Group 1-winning status at Royal Ascot likely meant she would be weighted out of the contest. Dwyer is currently looking to take his mare to the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes Aug. 24 at York before a trip to the States can be confirmed. The post Breeders’ Cup Possible for King Charles III Heroine Asfoora appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The G1 Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday, August 21 could be the next port of call for Zarakem (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) following his excellent effort in defeat at Royal Ascot. Trained by Jerome Reynier, Zarakem was sent off at 33/1 for the G1 Prince of Wales's Stakes, but he proved in no uncertain terms that he belongs at the top table by faring best of the rest behind Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), running on well from the rear of the field to be beaten just three quarters of a length at the line. Reynier is now working back from the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with the progressive Zarakem, who could first return to Britain for one of the highlights of York's Ebor Festival. “He seems to be improving mentally and physically, so maybe the best is yet to come and we can aim for the Arc at the end of the year with him,” Reynier said of the four-year-old. “He won a Group 2 in Longchamp, so he handles the track and he doesn't mind the ground and he promises to be a horse who could have a decent chance in the Arc. “Maybe we will go to York for the Juddmonte International. That would be an interesting race and it is right between the Prince of Wales's and the Arc, so it could be a good race to run in. I think he will only have one more run [before the Arc], just with all the travel and everything, and he's a horse who likes his races spaced out quite a bit, so it would be better to arrive in the Arc without too many runs under his belt. “We want him to be fresh for the end of the year because after the Arc he could go for the Japan Cup or the Hong Kong Vase.” Reflecting further on Zarakem's performance at Ascot, Reynier added, “It was just unreal. Maxime [Guyon, jockey] rode the perfect race from the inside. I think Auguste Rodin was very hard to beat that day, but we were a clear second and he has run the best race of his life. “He has now shown that he's able to win a Group 2 on heavy ground and finish second to a top-class horse in a Prince of Wales's on fast ground, so he's very versatile and a pure athlete.” The post Zarakem has York in his Sights After Prince Of Wales’s Second appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Royal Ascot was tremendous in myriad ways. Sun up, crowd up, and a spread of results which drew in some of the world's biggest owners and trainers alongside syndicates and smaller yards. Then on Sunday morning came the news that QIPCO is to significantly reduce its sponsorship of British racing from next year. British Champions Day will still be run in its name, and the company owned by Sheikhs Hamad and Fahad Al Thani will remain as an official partner of Ascot racecourse, but Newmarket's Guineas meeting, Ascot's King George meeting and the British Champions Series will no longer benefit from the largesse of QIPCO. Since 2011, when QIPCO first got behind the new-look British Champions Day, it has put £47 million into that day of racing alone, and it drove the prize-money on offer for the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas to record levels. This news, though not unexpected, will come as a blow to Newmarket in particular in a time of upheaval within the Jockey Club owing to the impending departure of CEO Nevin Truesdale. However, it also opens up opportunities for emerging forces within British racing, perhaps even from fellow members of Qatar's royal family, or those from Bahrain, to enhance their own profile in a country which they clearly regard as a world leader when it comes to first-class racing. Few who attended or watched the royal meeting last week can argue with that. There are superb race meetings across Europe throughout the Flat season but Royal Ascot stands alone when it comes to tradition, high fashion, picnic-partying and the pulling power of the royal family. One only needs to read Sue Finley's interview with Mark Taylor, one of a large group of American owners connected to the Coronation Stakes winner Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio), to understand the lure the meeting still has internationally. “It was a bucket-list experience for them,” Taylor said of the investors in the Medallion Racing syndicate.  Wathnan Racing, which arrived in style on the British scene during Royal Ascot last year when winning the Gold Cup and Queen's Vase, clearly enjoyed that experience so much that bloodstock agent Richard Brown was instructed to amass a far larger team of challengers for this year's meeting. The principal of that operation, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is both the Emir of Qatar and a cousin to the brothers behind QIPCO. He has clearly caught the bug which ensured that one of those cousins, Sheikh Fahad, became a significant owner and breeder in Britain, and whose support continues through Qatar Racing, which now also has interests and partnerships in America and beyond.  Wathnan Racing was rewarded with four winners this week: Leovanni (G2 Queen Mary Stakes), Shareholder (G2 Norfolk), English Oak (Buckingham Palace), and Haatem (G3 Jersey). That quartet alone, of its 26 runners at Ascot, contains two potential stallion prospects and a decent future broodmare. Brown would not be drawn on whether Wathnan Racing plans to become Wathnan Breeding, but it does not require a huge leap to imagine that it won't be long before the operation looks into purchasing land on which to rear its own champions. In the meantime, plenty of other owners, breeders, pinhookers and sales companies will have benefited from an outlay which must run to eight figures for Wathnan's Ascot team alone.  The Bahraini royal family has also had a growing presence in European racing of late. Shaikh Khalid Al Khalifa's KHK Racing has struck with the likes of Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek (GB) and St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov, while his brother Shaikh Nasser is behind Victorious Racing, the owner of dual Royal Ascot winner Bradsell (GB) who celebrated two further winners at Ascot last week in Pledgeofallegiance (Ire) and Isle Of Jura (GB). Another of their brothers, Shaikh Salman, is the Crown Prince of Bahrain and, though not a racehorse owner himself, was at Royal Ascot last week. Isle Of Jura has given particular pleasure to his owner, having won the unofficial Triple Crown of Bahrain racing over the winter during a magnificent spell which saw him win four of his five races on the island between December and March. That he has held and improved that form on his return to Britain is to the great credit of trainer George Scott and his team.  All of Isle Of Jura's eight victories have come in the hands of Callum Shepherd, who leads our unofficial 'Hats Off' awards which reflect on a marvellous week of racing: Shepherd's Delight It has by now been well documented that, through no fault of his own, Callum Shepherd lost the Derby ride on Ambiente Friendly (Ire) (Gleaneagles {Ire}), who went on to finish second to City Of Troy (Justify) at Epsom and will be one of the leading hopes for next weekend's Irish Derby.  It is generally a better guide to character to observe how someone copes in adversity rather than in triumph, and in public Shepherd accepted this reversal with good grace. If one could only guess at the depth of his misery at losing such a high-profile ride, his emotional response to winning the G2 Hardwicke Stakes told its own tale. “Six weeks ago I thought I'd found my diamond for the season, but that wasn't to be, and he's stepped in,” said the jockey of Isle Of Jura.  His conduct has been nothing but classy in a year which has already had its highs and terrible lows. Shepherd was also a close friend of Stefano Cherchi, who died in April following a race fall in Australia. He paid a beautiful tribute to his fellow jockey on social media, which included the lines, “[Stefano] was not defined by his abilities in the saddle, or by the races he has won. What defined him to us, those lucky enough to have known him, and I really do mean lucky, was the human being he was.” It sounds like Cherchi was also lucky to have Shepherd on his side during his short life, and we can only hope to see his friend continue to flourish in his career. Howden's Just Reward  David Howden, like QIPCO, has become a staunch supporter of racing, and in particular Ascot, where his company Howden is also an official partner. His homebred filly Running Lion (GB) (Roaring Lion) took him to the Oaks at Epsom last year only to be withdrawn at the start when getting upset in the stalls. She has managed several group placings since then but her victory in the G2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes clearly meant the world to her owner, whose love of eventing has now been enthusiastically expanded to the racing world.  Dark Angel  You've gotta love him, haven't you? Now 19, the Yeomanstown Stud stallion certainly made his presence felt at Ascot last week as the only stallion to notch two Group 1 winners in Charyn (Ire) and the returning hero Khaadem (Ire). Dark Angel also featured as broodmare sire of the Coolmore-bred Bedtime Story (Ire), who provided the 'wow' moment of the week when winning the Chesham by nine lengths. But then, that is perhaps no surprise as the filly's sire Frankel (GB) and dam Mecca's Angel (Ire) each had a wow factor of their own during their racing days and have clearly transferred an explosive mix of genes to their daughter.  The Boy from Ballarat “We had a pretty big knees-up on Tuesday night,” said Australian trainer Henry Dwyer, and who could blame him for that?  Dwyer's speedy mare Asfoora (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) provided one of the highlights of the opening day when landing her first Group 1 success in the King Charles III Stakes and, even better, she has a potentially long season of European engagements ahead of her, with a chance that her world tour could culminate in an appearance at the Breeders' Cup. It is admirably sporting campaigning from her owner-breeder Akram El-Fahkri of Noor Elaine Farm and we look forward to following Asfoora's progress.  The Prince of Wales The future King of England clearly has a number of greater concerns at the moment, and he is not a noted fan of horseracing, but his presence at Royal Ascot on the only day that his father was absent could only have given the meeting an extra boost.  That same day, the official social media accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales posted to nearly 20 million followers, “A pleasure to be at Royal Ascot for a thrilling afternoon of racing. Congratulations to Ryan Moore, Aidan O'Brien and of course Auguste Rodin on winning the Prince of Wales's Stakes.” Prince William spent plenty of time on the podium congratulating all those connected with Auguste Rodin (Ire), including having an especially lengthy chat with travelling groom David Hickey.  From Ascot, the prince then headed to the England v Denmark match at the European football championships, followed by spending his birthday on Friday night at Taylor Swift's Eras tour in London. Not a bad week really, even if the rumour that Taylor Swift would be at Ascot on Friday was ultimately unfounded.      Threefold Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum has now enjoyed three homebred Group 1 winners in the last two years of Royal Ascot, all of whom descend from his increasingly influential mare Reem Three (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}). Her son Triple Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}), winner of last year's Queen Anne Stakes, is already at Dalham Hall Stud, and it was encouraging to hear the sheikh say on Friday that both St James's Palace Stakes winner Rosallion (GB) (Blue Point {Ire}) and Commonwealth Cup hero Inisherin (Ire) (Shamardal) will race on next year as four-year-olds. Stallion duties can wait for two of the most exciting three-year-old colts in training. Fairy Dust From Fairy Godmother (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) to Port Fairy (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and a few more besides, it was a sensational week for Aidan O'Brien, who was the leading trainer at Royal Ascot for the thirteenth time. But hats must also be doffed to the wider O'Brien family. Donnacha and Joseph each trained a winner, while Annemarie and Ana, who are the brains behind the family's breeding operation, Whisperview Trading, bred both the G1 Coronation Stakes winner Porta Fortuna and aforementioned G2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Port Fairy. The Two That Got Away We can't say that the performance of Calandagan (Fr) was ballsy because that is precisely the part of his anatomy which is missing, but his six-length victory was certainly one of the most impressive performances of Royal Ascot.  Reportedly, the gelding operation has improved the behaviour of the Aga Khan-bred winner of the King Edward VII Stakes, who has also won two Group 3 contests in France this year since the cruellest cut. While it is a measure which has kept him out of the Classics, his fast-rising profile means that the name Calandagan is now written on plenty of lists of horses to follow. Both he and Ambiente Friendly look set to boost the profile of their sire Gleneagles this year.  Ascot Racecourse  Ascot pledged to donate £5,000 per winning ride of Ryan Moore to the Retraining of Racehorses charity and, following a mighty week for the world's best jockey (that's official in our book), will end up handing over £30,000. Hats off to Ascot for important acknowledgement that it's not just about what happens on the track that matters, but that finding proper second homes for racehorses, either in retraining or retirement, is crucial to the sport's future.    The post Seven Days: Good for Ascot, Bad for Newmarket  appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article